
Pennsylvania Wild Gats | 



BY 



HENRY W. SHOEMAKER 

(Author .»! The Pennsylvania Lion, or Panther i 




ALTOONA. PENNSYLVANIA 
PuBi.iSHEU BY The Ai-toona Tribunp: Pubi.ishinc C 
1916 
Copyrighted : All riphts reserved. 




■FRANCE" HOWER (1847 1915 i 
His faithful dog and two bob cats from Jack's Mountain 



iFrontispiecei 



Pennsylvania Wild Cats 



BY 



HENRY W. SHOEMAKER 

I Author of "The Pennsylvania Lion, or Panther") 



The patch Is kind enotKjh ; hut a ItiKjf Jeeth-r. 
SiKiil-alow III profit, and he aleeps by day 
Moie than the vild cal.—Shakei^peare. 



ALTOONA, PENNSYLVANIA 

PuBLisiiEii BY The Altoona Tribune Publishing Co. 

1916 

Copyrighted : All rights reserved. 






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ICI,A427546 



27 1916 

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INDEX. 

Chapter Pages 

I. Introduction 6-7 

II. The Wild Cat 8-10 

III. The Bob Cat, or Catamount 11-13 

IV. The Big Grey Wild Cat 1-1-16 

V. The Blue Mountain Cat 17-18 

VI. Mixed Breeds 1 9-20 

VII. Cat Hunting '<!l-36 

VIII. Cat Hunters 27-31 



INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page 

"France" Homer (Frontispiece). 

"Clem" llerlacher 9 

Emmanuel Marman 13 

Jesse Logan 15 

"Jake" Zimmerman 23 

"Phil" Wright 27 

C. E. Logue 29 

Sam'l blotter ">1 

Rol)ert Karstetter -^^ 



PREFACE. 

AFTER the widespread researches of S. N. Rhoads 
it might be said that there is little left to write t)n 
concerning Pennsylvania wild cats. However, there 
have been changes in the numbers and the future pros- 
pects of these most persecuted animals since "Alam- 
mals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey" appeared in 
1!)03. In addition to offering a brief for the protection 
of the lynxes, space will be devoted in the following 
pages to the noble sport of cat hunting, and the bold 
spirits who took a leading part in the chase in Penn- 
sylvania, past and present. But tlie main idea of this 
book is to obtain for the wild cats, now on the verge of 
extinction, a re-hearing on the trumped-up evidence 
against them — so that they may get another chance. 
Let us preserve this picturesque and useful mammal 
for future generations. 

Hkni{v W. SnOEMAKEn. 

Altoon.v Tkibuxe Office, Februakv 15, 1916. 



w 



I. INTRODUCTION. 

HEN, through villamous bounty laws, the exist- 
ence of one of the most useful animals in Penn- 
sylvania is threatened, it seems high time for a voice 
of protest to be raised. Immediately the question will 
be asked, what is the use of the wild cat? Its values 
are manifold. In the mountainous districts, where 
hunters are few and far between, ra1)bits, unless kept 
in check by wild cats, would become so numerous 
that they would destroy vast numbers of growing 
trees by eating off their bark. As it is the aim of all 
crood Pennsylvanians to aid in the reforestation of 
Uie desolated areas in the State-after the forest fire 
menace has been checked, the wild cat should be pre- 
served to help along the arboreal millennium. In the 
settled neighborhoods, where farmer boys and city 
hunters keep rabbits killed off, there is httle need for 
wild cats. And the cats have the common sense to 
stay away from such localities, though they have on 
rare occasions come near barnyards or hen-houses. 
Such cats are renegades to their race and should be 
killed. But the vast majority of wild cats follow out 
their lives hunting rabbits, rats, mice, shrews and other 
vermin. They prey on the rats and mice which destroy 
the eggs of game birds. They eat much carrion, and as 
such are invaluable forest scavengers. They are per- 
forming faithfully the duties for which the same God 
who created us made them to do. If rabbits become 
scarce, wild cats decrease, just as does the Canada Lynx 
of the North ; bounty laws are unnecessary, wasteful 



and cruel, a sop thrown by crafty politicians to keep the 
mountaineer vote in line. If there were no rabbits in 
the mountains there would be no wild cats. Note 
carefully the sections of the State where cats are 
rare, all for the same cause — lack of food supply, 
when not wiped out by the mercenary bounty hunters. 
Those who slaughter wild cats wantonly are false to 
posterity, unacquainted with natural history, ignorant 
of the scheme of nature. There is some excuse to 
hunt wild cats for the sport, if no attempt is made to 
annihilate the species. It provides a grand chase for 
men and dogs, gives city men a love of the open, and 
when the cat escapes, furnishes fun for the cat. The 
wild cat is fairly valuable as a fur-bearer ; its relative, 
the Canada Lynx, was much more so, but it is now 
totally extinct in Pennsylvania, at least the pure race. 
Therefore, as an aid to sylviculture, as a means of 
sport, and for its fur, the wild cat deserves protection. 
Its meat is considered very good. Such men as Dr. C. 
Hart Merriam and Prof. E. Emmons pronounce it 
most excellent. It was a favorite relish for the old 
pioneers in the Pennsylvania mountains and the In- 
dians. Another cause for the protection of Lynx 
Riifiis. And then there is the sentimental side, which 
side appeals only to the few. But it is real; animals 
have rights ; they add to the sum total of the beauty 
and picturesqueness of this world of ours. We have 
no right to condemn a species to extermination that a 
Wise Power saw fit to create. It is presumption on 
our part. Who gave us such authority? 

GIVE THE WILD CATS A CHANCE. 

7 



II. THE WILD CAT. 

WHEN, as a young boy, in 1897, the writer first 
paid a visit to Loganton, "the hunting capital" 
of Sugar Valley, Clinton County, and was invited to 
inspect the barber-shop trophy room of that prince of 
Pennsylvania wild cat hunters, Clem. F. Herlacher, the 
most noticeable object in the collection was a long- 
tailed, cat-like specimen which occupied the place of 
honor over the central mirror. "That is," said Her- 
lacher, pointing to the trophy, "what the first settlers 
called a 'wild cat'; in reality it is the cub of the pan- 
ther, fclis coiigiiar. The old-timers ofter ran across 
these huge kittens in the woods ; they were always 
blundering into the traps, or their dogs were killing 
them, and they did resemble 'cats,' with their fluffy fur, 
Ijroad faces, and long tails. But gradually the truth 
dawned on them when they found these 'wild cats' 
trailing along with mature pantheresses, or smaller- 
sized ones were taken from panther nests on rocky 
ledges. They were not wild cats at all, but half-grown 
or cub panthers. During the time when our fore- 
fathers were calling the cub panthers 'wild cats,' they 
were calling the true, stump-tailed wild cats 'cata- 
mounts,' making in that designation another absurd 
mistake. The true wild cat is the bay lynx, whereas 
the catamount is really the Northern or Canada lynx, 
always a rare animal in Pennsylvania, and unknown in 
most of the counties except in the 'Northern Tier.' " 



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"CLEM" HERLACHER, Loganton. Clinton County. 
Greatest living Pennsylvania wild cat hunter 



PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 



At the close of this dissertation, the words of wiiich 
became indellibly impressed on the writer's mind. Her- 
lacher pointed to a second stuffed animal, on a shelf 
above another of the mirrors. "There." he said, "is a 
true wild cat — Lynx Rufus — a fine specimen ; it 
weighed thirty-five pounds wdien I killed it two 
years ago near 'Captain Green's Trench.' in Green 
Gap. down the valley. See, it has a short tail, about 
six inches, is more distinctly mottled than the panther 
cub. its fur is shorter and smoother." The writer then 
inquired where the panther cub had been obtained. 
Herlacher replied that he had on two successive years 
— 18!)2 and 181)3 — secured panther cubs from a nest in 
the Panther Rocks, in Black Wolf or Treaster N'alley, 
^Mifflin County. He had trailed the old panthers on 
their regular crossing from Sugar A'alley. It was in 
Treaster Valley that the noble Pennsylvania lion or 
panther made its last permanent abode in Pennsylva- 
nia, the cubs taken by Herlacher being, as far as 
known, the last panthers born in a wild state in the 
Keystone Commonwealth. As curios they were in 
great demand, but he regretted not having taken them 
alive. The great hunter had given away all but the 
one adorning the shelf above the central mirror. Later 
it became moth-eaten and was thrown away. Alas ! 
for a priceless natural history specimen. And from 
the above it will be plain to the readers of these pages 
that the original "wild cat" was the panther cub, the 
wild cat of today is the bay lynx, the real catamount is 
the Canada lynx. P.ut the next few chapters will go 



10 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 

into these matters more in detail. Emmanuel Har- 
man, of Mt. Zion, Clinton Comity, aged 84 years, and 
many others, have regaled the writer with the story of 
the wild-cat panther-cub blunder of the "pioneer nat- 
uralists." 



III. THE BOB CAT, OR CATAMOUNT. 

CW. DICKINSON, experienced hunter and nat- 
• uralist, of Smethport, McKean County, describes 
the true Pennsylvania wild cat (Lynx Rufus), some- 
times called the Rob Cat, and erroneously called the 
Catamount, as follcjws : "The size of the average 
grown wild cat is : Length from nose to base of tail, 
30 inches ; tail 4 inches ; weight, about 26 pounds. The 
longest cat I ever saw weighed tipped the scales at just 
33 pounds. The wild cat only raises one litter of 
kittens annually, the time they are born being the loth 
or 20th of April. The number of kits in the litter 
varies from two to five. The weight of a kitten at 
eight months after birth will be from thirteen to sev- 
enteen pounds. It takes them about three years to get 
their full growth. It is the opinion of many of the 
old hunters that the cat, as well as the panther, did not 
like to stay in a locality inhabited by the grey wolf, 
as the wolf usually roamed about in droves or squads 
of from two to ten or twelve in a pack. It seems that 
the cat family was deathly afraid of the wolf family. 
Their fear was due to the superior numbers of the 
wolf family traveling together. It was really surpris- 
ing how fast the cat family increased in this locality 
after the wolf became extinct. There are three times 
as many wild cats in McKean County today as there 
were fifty years ago, notwithstanding they have been 
hunted hard since the bounty laws were enacted. Yet 

11 



12 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS 



I do not think there is more than one cat now to where 
there were three fifteen years ago, while grouse and 
rabbits, both "snowshoe" and " cottontail," are also 
decreasing. The wild cat is a great hunter. Naturally 
he is a night prowler. He is fond of 'coon, rabbit, 
ground-hog, all kinds of birds that he can catch, and 
he can capture a mouse as quickly as a house cat. 
Wild cats are handy with their paws; they have large 
nails, which are as sharp as needles." The present 
range of the wild cat is practically the same as it was 
when S. N. Rhoads" admirable work on Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey animals appeared in 190;5. which was 
the entire State of Pennsylvania, except Allegheny, 
Armstrong, lleaver. Putler, Crawford. Erie, Mercer 
and Washington Counties in tlie west, and Bucks, 
Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia 
Counties in tlic east, thirteen out of sixty-seven coun- 
ties, but its numbers are now sadly diminished since 
Rhoads made his researches. Preying as it does on 
sickly and weakly game birds, it was a tower of 
strength in combatting the "grouse disease" and the 
"quail blight," and also kept in check the ravages of 
destructive ral)l)its and other small mauTmals. In ev- 
ery district where it has been extirpated the game birds 
and game animals have decreased with it, until it would 
look that tame or hand-raised game will alone survive 
the next quarter of a century. The folly of destroying 
the wolf, fox and wild cat will not be understood until 
it is too late. Nature decrees all forms of life or none 
■ — except the domesticated or semi-domesticated speci- 



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PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 13 

mens of animals and birds. If the present bounty law, 
giving $6 for every wild cat's scalp, is continued, few 
cats will be left in the State by 1921. They are wholly 
absent from many localities where they were fairly 
numerous five years ago. They are practically extinct 
in the Blue Mountains, the Bald Eagle Alountains, and 
the main chain of the Alleghenies. In Northeastern 
Pennsylvania a few are taken annually at Blooming 
Grove Preserve, in Pike County; in Clinton County 
some are trapped every year in Otzinachson Park — 
drawn thither by the rabbits and entrails of deer — but 
these preserves will be responsible for the destruction 
of all the cats in their respective localities; thev will 
last longest in parts of McKean, and Cameron Coun- 
ties, away from settlements, in the Seven Mountains in 
Centre and Mifilin Counties, and in Eastern Clinton 
County, in the Zimmerman country, unless destroyed 
by the increasingly frequent forest fires. There is a 
great diversity of coloring in specimens of Pennsyl- 
vania wild cats. They are mostly of a cinnamon brown 
color, black striped or spotted on the legs and shading 
into a white or marbled on the belly. Some are of a 
rich chestnut brown in color, beautifully spotted 
with black, while a few are of a grey-drab in color, the 
black markings resembling bars rather than dots. 
They usually have a white patch on the ears. 



IV. THE BIG GREY WILD CAT, OR CANADA 
LYNX. 

JOHN G. DA\'IS, old-time woodsman of ^IcElliat- 
tan, Clinton County, gives the best description of 
a mammoth Canada Lynx (Lynx Canadensis ) killed 
l)y John Fluff, at Hyner, in that County, in 1874. 
Pluff, who was a noted hunter in his day, died in Jan- 
uary, 191-i, in his '<'4th year. One evening when Plutt 
was at supper,' he heard a commotion in his barnyard. 
Taking down his ritle he hurried out, only to notice a 
shagg}' animal moving about among the feet of his 
young cattle. Courageously driving the steers into the 
barn, he came face to face with a gigantic Canada 
Lynx, or what was called, in Northern Pennsylvania, a 
"Big Grey Wild Cat," or catamount, to distinguish it 
from the smaller and ruddier Bay Lynx. Taking aim 
at the monster's jugular, Pluff fired, killing the big 
cat with a single ball. The shot attracted the neigh- 
bors, among them Davis, and they gazed with amaze- 
ment at the giant carcass, the biggest cat killed in 
those parts since Sam Snyder slew his 10-foot panther 
on Young Woman's Creek in 1858. The Canada Lynx 
measured four feet ten inches from tip of nose to root 
of tail (the tail measured four inches) and weighed 
seventy-five pounds. The next day being Thanksgiv- 
ing, it was supplemented to the turkey feast, and all 
enjoyed the dcliciously flavored white meat more than 



14 




JESSE LOGAN (1809— 1916 1 
An Indian Hunter of Warren County who killed many wild cats 



PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 15 



the conventional "Thanksgiving Bird." This lynx was 
probably a straggler from the Northern Tier, as none 
of its kind have been about Hyner since. At the same 
time the Canada Lynx has been killed in many parts 
of Pennsylvania, as far south as the Seven Mountains 
and Somerset County, some claim, but never frequent- 
ly. Jesse Logan, Indian hunter, of the Cornplanter 
Reservation in Warren County, who is now 107 years 
old, says that he cannot recall Canada Lynxes ever 
having been plentiful in any part of Northern Pennsyl- 
vania.* Clem Herlacher has killed a number of these 
animals in Clearfield ami Cameron Counties, but in 
widely different localities and dift'erent dates. He de- 
scribes the Canada Lynx as follows: "The two most 
remarkable characters of the Canada Lynx are the 
beautiful pencils of black hair which ornament the 
ears, and the perfect hairiness of the soles of the feet, 
which have no naked spots or tubercles like other spe- 
cies of the feline race. The catamount, which is the 
true Pennsylvania title for this animal, is of an ashen 
grey in color, with a ruff of stiff dark hair about its 
neck and looks 'chuffier' than the common wild cat ; it 
most resembles an Old English Sheep Dog. I know 
nothing of its domestic habits, though I believe it for- 
merly bred in some of our northern counties. Dr. 
]\Ierriam says that it has two kittens at a birth. The 
biggest catamount I ever killed measured, exclusive of 
the tail, forty inches, the tail measured four inches, or 
an inch shorter than most wild cats. Catamounts were 

♦Jesse Logan died February 17, 1916. 



16 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 

driven into Clinton and ]\Iifflin Counties by forest fires 
from their northern range, but never remained long. 
I think that the Canada Lynx is now totally extinct in 
Pennsylvania. It was a fierce fighter, but I have heard 
of Seneca Indians who tamed it to follow them about 
like dogs. Among the Pennsylvania Dutch it was sup- 
posed to be endowed with the power to look through 
opaque bodies, hence the old expression of a person 
with keen sight being 'lynx eyed.' " Rhoads records 
instances of catamounts taken in Cameron, Potter, 
Columbia, Forest, Lackawanna, Lycoming, IMcKean, 
Monroe, Pike, Wayne, Somerset and Tioga Counties. 
Jesse Harman and son Ed., accompanied by Sam 
Hotter, "California Sam," a noted trapper, took a cat- 
amount at the head of McElhattan Run, in Clinton 
County, early in 1003. Out of a dozen cats caught by 
these hunters that winter it was the only Canada Lynx. 
It weighed sixty-five pounds and measured exactly five 
feet from tip to tip. 



V. THE BLUE MOUNTAIN CAT. 

AN animal so widespread in its range as the wild cat 
doubtless has had many diversified types, even 
sub-species. Hunted for the most part by unscientific 
persons, no descriptions have been kept, all have been 
classed alike in the bounty records. A few years ago, 
while in conversation with the venerable artist and 
nature-lover, C. H. Shearer, of Reading, the subject 
turned to wild cats. "Are you aware," said the old 
naturalist, "that the wild cats from the Blue Moun- 
tains east to the Delaware were vastly different from 
the cats found in other parts of Pennsylvania? I am 
not certain of any marked difference between, say, 
the cats of Potter County and those of Fulton County, 
except perhaps that they reached the maximum of size 
in the central part of the State, in the Seven Moun- 
tains. But in the Blue Mountains, and on Penn's 
Mount, we used to take a cat vastly different from the 
cats of the Juniata country. In my opinion the Blue 
Mountain cat was the 'mountain cat' described by 
Loskiel. Its coloring, according to that early observer, 
was 'reddish or orange colored hair, with black 
streaks.' As a boy I used to trap many of these cats 
in Irish Gap and at the head of the Schwartzbach, 
back of Tuckerton. These cats were short-coupled, 
compact, rather short-legged, with long, wavy fur, 
much like the modern pet Angoras in confirmation, ex- 

17 



18 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 

cept for the short tails. Ten or fifteen pound cats 
were big specimens. In winter time they were pale 
greyish colored, like the Canada Lynx; in summer, 
orange color, and instead of being dappled were striped 
like tigers. When I first saw the cats in Central Penn- 
sylvania I was struck by the difference — the Juniata 
cats were so ungainly, with higher hind legs than front 
legs, they were usually so meagre looking, their noses 
were longer. When I was a boy, before the Civil War, 
Blue Mountain cats were common in all the hilly re- 
gions in Berks, Lancaster, Lebanon and Lehigh Coun- 
ties. I have not seen one since about 1870." The 
writer at once started on a search for the hide of a 
Blue Mountain cat, being rewarded by securing a fine 
hide, corresponding exactly to Shearer's descriptions. 
The hide was of a mature bore cat in its winter coat, 
which had been killed, according to Paul Weber, the 
Reading taxidermist, in the Blue Mountains, near 
Millersburg, in 1864. In color it closely resembles a 
Canada Lynx ; its legs are very short. A large stuffed 
wild cat in the bar room of the hotel at Upper Bern, 
Berks County, said to have been killed in the Blue 
Mountains near Shartlesville in 1892, has none of these 
characteristics. It is a typical Bay Lynx. William 
Henne, a wild cat hunter of Strausstown, Berks Coun- 
ty, declares that for a time both varieties existed in 
the Blue Mountains. 



VI. MIXED BREEDS. 

MIKE SULLIVAN, a very intelligent bar clerk at 
Johnsonburg, Elk County, called the writer's at- 
tention to the length of the tail of a mounted cat in 
the hotel at that prosperous lumber town. "A great 
many wild cat hides, taken in Elk, McKean, and Forest 
Counties are shipped to a fur dealer in town," said 
Sullivan, "and I have been struck by the length of their 
tails. I put a foot rule on this one, and it measured 
exactly twelve inches. That cat, I am told, weighed 
forty-one pounds. We have quite a few varieties of 
cats in these parts. First of all, there is the Canada 
Lynx, grey in color, with tabs on his ears and hair on 
the soles of his feet; a big, fierce fellow, often weigh- 
ing fifty pounds. He has always been a scarce cat, 
even the Indians say he was never plentiful. Secondly, 
there is the true wild cat, or 'Bob' cat, reddish in color, 
mottled like a fawn, smaller than the Canadian Lynx, 
but with a longer tail. Thirdly, there is the tame cat 
gone wild — escaped from lumber camps and the like. 
Some of these grow very big, and in one or two gen- 
erations are brindled and bushy tailed. Many people 
call them 'coon cats.' Then we have the fourth kind, 
the mixture, hybrid or mongrel, whatever you call it, 
between the Canada Lynx and the Wild Cat, or Bay 
Lynx. In my opinion, that cat on yonder shelf is a 
cross between a lynx and a Bob Cat. Old hunters tell 
me that the product of that cross has a longer tail than 
either lynx or Bob Cat — a throw back to the type of 
long ago. There may also be crosses between lynxes 

19 



20 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 

and Bob Cats and tame cats gone wild ; it happened in 
the old country, why not here?" The above observa- 
tions, which have also been advanced by C. W. Dickin- 
son, of Smethport, have a considerable element of 
common-sense to them. In deer breeding there is a 
tendency to throw back to good-headed, or poor headed 
ancestors, as the case may be. In South Carolina there 
are frequent cases of palmation in the deer, due to 
some English fallow bucks liberated by planters in the 
Eighteenth Century. A cross between two varieties of 
short-tailed lynxes might provide a longer tailed type. 
In other respects the cat in the Johnsonburg house 
showed an accentuation of characters. Its hind legs 
were apparently twice the thickness of the front legs, 
and very much longer. It was an unsymmetrical ani- 
mal. Perhaps much of this was due to faulty taxi- 
dermy, but that would not account for the length of 
the tail. Its color, a darker grey than the true lynx, 
was almost of a drab hue. It was darker about the 
head, but there were no regular spots. The Canada 
Lynx early succumbed to changed conditions in his 
faunal zone, the forest fire, the clearing, the drained 
swamp, the passing of the northern hare, but for a 
time his blood will live on in the crossbreed with the 
more adaptable Bay Lynx. As these long tailed cats 
are said to be plentiful in the wilder sections of North- 
western Pennsylvania, it may be that this new race will 
possess the power to best endure existing conditions — 
though S. N. Rhoads says that such a cross would be 
infertile. 



VII. CAT HUNTING. 

CW. DICKINSON describes cat hunting in Pcnn- 
• sylvania in the following language: "Wild cats 
are hunted with hounds chiefly. If pursued by a fast 
hound, the wild cat will either go into some rocky ledge 
or go up a tree, as he can climb a tree as easily as a 
squirrel can. If a hunter has a good cat dog it is quite 
exciting sport. I know, as I have often been on a cat 
hunt. It is a sport that ought to be preserved." One 
of the very best out-door-life articles that has appeared 
in a sporting magazine in recent years is J. B. Sansom's 
contribution entitled : "Cat Hunting : A Real 
Winter Sport,"' in the January number of "In the 
Open." It describes a thrilling cat hunt in which "coon 
dogs" were used on A. R. A'an Tassel's ranch in Cam- 
eron County, not far from SinnemalVoning. The 
hounds, which had never previously been used on cats, 
took to the sport at once, and three cats were secured 
on the hunt. A. Phillips, a Lock Haven cat hunter, 
has used Airedale terriers successfully, securing sev- 
eral fine wild cats by this means on Scootac Run, Clin- 
ton County. William Henne, a noted cat hunter, re- 
siding at Strausstown, Berks County, trained beagles 
to trail wild cats in the Blue Mountains, when cats 
were plentiful in that region, twenty years ago. One 
Christmas eve his dogs started a wild cat which headed 
toward the mountain back of Fort Northkill. While 

21 



22 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 

passing along an old lumber road a second cat leaped 
from a persimmon tree on the back of the unsuspecting 
Nimrod. A struggle ensued, in which Henne was 
badly clawed. Eventually he shook off the cat, which 
was killed by the beagles, and, continuing the hunt, 
secured the second cat at its den on the top of the 
mountain. George Potts, of Millersburg, Berks Coun- 
ty, hunted wild cats with fox hounds, trained especially 
for cat hunting, and wtih considerable success for 
twenty years after the close of the Civil War. Cat 
hunting is usually carried on when there is a good 
"tracking snow." C. E. Logue states that this winter he 
shot four wild cats "ahead of his dogs" in Northern 
Clinton County. This grand sport is little prosecuted 
in Pennsylvania, most of the cats being trapped, a 
mean advantage to take of a noble game animal. Wild 
cats make delicious eating. Not only the old moun- 
taineers, but such discerning naturalists as Dr. Mer- 
riam and Prof. Emmons have attested to this. As 
a source of food supply the wild cat deserves protec- 
tion. Dr. Merriam ,in this connection, says: "I have 
eaten the flesh of the wild cat, and can pronounce it 
excellent. It is white, very tender, and suggested veal 
more than any other meat with which I am familiar." 
The flesh of panthers and catamounts was also higlily 
spoken of by the Pennsylvania backwoodsmen. Lion's 
meat was regarded as a delicacy by the French soldiers 
in Algeria. The wild cat is worth hunting, as he is a 
bold, courageous animal. He will fight to the last 
breath, and has no fear of man or dog. Last summer 




"JAKE" ZIMMERMAN 
For Years a Terror to the Bob Cats in the White Deer Creek Narrows 



PENNSYLVANIA WILt) CATS. • 23 

Jake Zimmerman, tlie celebrated guide and hunter of 
the "Zimmerman Country," in Eastern CHnton County, 
was followed by a wild cat four miles one night, while 
driving from White Deer Hole Valley to his home in 
the mountains. It bounded along by the side of his horse 
•and wagon, every few leaps uttering a piercing cry. 
Others who have been followed at night by wild cats 
are Lincoln Conser and W. J. Phillips, of McElhattan, 
Clinton County, and Reuben Stover and daughter, of 
Livonia (Stover's), Centre County. Rev. D. A. 
Sowers, of Lock Haven, met a finely spotted wild cat 
standing on a log in the forest near DuBois, during the 
deer hunting season in 1914. As it appeared to be 
unafraid the young hunter promptly ended its life with 
a well-directed bullet. According to C. W. Dickinson 
the skin of an average Pennsylvania wild cat (if 
prime) is worth about $L25. Finely mottled hides 
bring much higher prices. Mounted specimens sell for 
about $10 apiece. In the form of rugs they bring from 
five to eight dollars, according to size and markings. 
C. H. Eldon, the gifted Williamsport taxidermist, has 
mounted several thousand Pennsylvania wild cat hides 
during the past thirty years. The alleged destructive- 
ness of wild cats, at most a specious argument, is 
crushed like an egg-shell by the testimony .of C. E. 
Logue, gamekeeper at the extensive Otzinachson Park 
Preserve in Northern Clinton County, the "type local- 
ity" of the Bay Lynx in Pennsylvania. Within the 
enclosure of this preserve, which embraces over three 
thousand acres, several hundred deer are kept. In i\Ir. 



24 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 

Logue's experience he found only one case where a 
(leer had been killed by wild cats. In this instance it 
was a very old deer, and may have been found dead by 
the cats, wliich dragged it a hundred feet down a hill 
over the snow and devoured parts of the carcass. 
Logue has never found evidence that fawns have been 
molested by the cats. Fawns have no scent, hence 
cannot be trailed by cats ; the mother deer are well able 
to care for them. He classes the wild cats as "game 
hogs" as regards rabbits and rats, but capable of caus- 
ing little trouble to game birds or deer. Yet the man- 
agement of this same park continues the unscientific 
methods of the gamekeepers of the Middle Ages, 
ordering Logue to trap wild cats, foxes, and other use- 
ful mammals incessantly. We have progress in every 
other branch of human activity except game propaga- 
tion, and the results show it. Dr. Warren mentions a 
cat which followed a young swain in Southwestern 
Pennsylvania, going home from courting his "best girl," 
finally "treeing" him on a fence, and keeping him there 
until daylight. "Link" Conser, of Clinton County, had 
an almost similar experience during his courting days 
on the ridges south of the "Sugar Valley Hill;" in his 
case the cat kept crossing and recrossing the road in 
front of him, sometimes lying down and purring at 
liim. This kept up until daylight, when the cat van- 
ished. A. R. Sholter reports another case from 
Weikert, Union County. One night, some years ago, 
when returning from a call, he had occasion to walk 
along the tracks of the Tv. & T. Railroad. When oppo- 



PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 25 

site Chimney Rock a cat appeared on the ties in 
front of him, trotting on ahead, and sometimes cross- 
ing and recrossing the tracks or lying down and roll- 
ing. Dr. Warren wonders if the Pennsylvania wild 
cat could by any possibility be the patron saint of young 
lovers ! In order to show the extent of the slaughter 
of wild cats in the Keystone State by professional 
bounty hunters, the following figures, quoted from 
Dr. Warren's statistics on the subject, may be of in- 
terest : In Clinton Count}', the "cat stronghold," in the 
years 1885 to 1896, inclusive, 298 bounty claims were 
paid on wild cats. The largest number in a single 
year w^as in 1891, when 91 scalps were brought in. 
During the first six months of 191 1, boiuities were paid 
on the scalps of G2 wild cats in Clinton County. In 
Clearfield County, during the seven years, 1890-1896, 
bounties were ])aid on 430 cats. In February, 1916, 
two well-known citizens of Clearfield County killed a 
wild cat at Crystal Springs, which weighed 46 pounds. 
It was four feet loiig. In Centre County. 1885 to 1895, 
inclusive, bounties were paid on 252 wild cats. In 
Potter County, 1885 to 1896, inclusive, bounties were 
paid on 261 cat scalps. During January, 1916, bounties 
were paid on the scalps of 15 cats in Potter County. In 
Sullivan County, from 1886 to 1896, inclusive, bounties 
were paid on 224 cats. In Huntingdon County, be- 
tween 1886 and 1896, inclusive, bounties were paid on 
127 of these animals. In Franklin County, 1885 to 
1896, inclusive, bounties were paid on 196 cats; in 
Fulton County, during the same period, on 89 cats, and 



26 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 



ill Cambria County, also between 1885 and 1896, in- 
clusive, on 136 cats. During January, 1916, boun- 
ties were paid on 221 wild cats in Pennsylva- 
nia. And "game," that is, grouse, quail and rab- 
bits, are scarcer now than with all these cats in 
the woods. When it is considered that in the eighties 
and nineties the bounty amounted to only two dollars 
per cat, and up to 1915 four dollars at most, the toll to 
be taken at the present bounty of six dollars per cat 
means extermination. A rogue's march is going on 
of lazy ne'er-do-wells, idlers and thugs, going to the 
forests to destroy an animal that the Creator put there 
for a wise purpose. The ])resumption of politicians 
who encourage this in the face of facts is disgusting 
and discouraging. The writer has no complaint against 
tlic man who hunts for food, or fur, or for love of the 
chase ; but he who wipes a species oft" the face of the 
earth for a few dollars is earning tainted money and is 
a traitor to all the higher instincts of his race. The 
large numbers of starving, emaciated wild cats shot in 
the open woods and fields this winter shows that with 
the scarcity of rabbits the wild cats of themselves will 
vanish from the face of the earth. 




UJ o 



— o 



VIII. CAT HUNTERS. 

HUNTERS specializing on wild cats were never 
numerous, consequently the roster of celebrated 
Pennsylvania cat hunters is not a long one. Most cats, 
as before stated, have been taken in traps, depriving 
the sport of its real zest. Except in winter time, when 
the country is open, the wild cat is difficult to locate. 
Its coloring blends with rocks and branches ; it is quiet 
and unobtrusive in the extreme. Dr. B. H. Warren, 
now Director of the Everhart Museum at Scranton, in 
his valuable treatise, "Enemies of Poultry," published 
at Harrisburg in 1897, thus describes the "favorite 
haunts" of the cats. These consist, he says, of "for- 
ests, rocky ledges, briary thickets, slashings and bark 
peelings strewn with decaying logs, fallen trees and 
brush piles, grown up with rhododendron (buck 
laurel)." At night the wild cat, like the panther, is 
much in evidence. A. R. Shelter, a young hunter of 
Weikert, Union County, describes the nocturnal cries 
of wild cats answering one another — one on Paddy's 
Mountain and the other on the White Mountain, the 
valley of the Karoondinha reverberating with the 
savage love notes. Professor Emmons, in de- 
scribing the panther, says: "Though it will not 
venture to attack man, yef it will follow his track 
a great distance; if it is near the evening, it 
frequently utters a scream which can be heard 

27 



28 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 



for miles." J. W. Zim'merman and others who 
have been followed at night by wild cats report the 
same habit, though the cat's cry is much fainter than 
that of felis couguar. Friends of Clem. Herlacher claim 
for him the distinction of being one of the most famous 
cat hunters in Pennsylvania in present or former times. 
They aver that he killed fifty Canada Lynxes, at the 
recital of which record the modest Nimrod "just whit- 
tles," taking pains to remind his friends that he has 
slain half a hundred wild cats, some of them after 
spirited combats. But in his hunting days in Clearfield 
County he surely killed many catamounts. Ranking 
high in the lists of cat hunters is Sol. Roach, who hails 
from Windber, Somerset County. Roach is accredited 
with killing half a hundred wild cats, six of them in 
one week, at the Bear Rocks, at the head of Beech 
Creek, in Centre County. John P. vSwope. the Hunt- 
ingdon County trapper, has probably taken more cats 
than any other hunter of the present day in Pennsylva- 
nia. Pie is credited with having trapped at least 500 
cats, sometimes thirty in one season. C. E. Logue, in 
connection with his duties as gamekeeper of Otzin- 
adison Park in Clinton County, has trapped probably 
100 wild cats, some of them large specimens. Phil. 
Wright enjoys the distinction of having killed more 
wild cats than any hunter in Southern Pennsylvania. 
This Nimrod has taken at least 100 cats of various 
sizes. W. H. Workinger has taken many cats in the 
Seven Mountains. This hunter, who resides at Milroy, 
Mifflin Countv, in January, 191G, caught two cats, one 




C. E. LOGUE 
The mighty cat hunter of the Sinnemahoning 



PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 29 



weighing sixty pounds, the smaller one thirty pounds. 
The big cat measured o7 y2 inches from nose to root of 
tail; the tail measured GiA inches. "France" Hower, 
who was accidentally shot in a fox-trap last summer, 
was a terror to the wild cats of Jack's Mountain. In 
his Icng career as a hunter he probably killed fifty of 
these animals. George Potts, of Millersburg, Berks 
County, was for years the leading cat hunter of the 
Blue Mountains. Between dogs and traps and still 
hunts he undoubtedly killed over one hundred Bay 
Lynxes and Blue Mountain Cats. Abe Simcox and his 
son John killed nearly half a hundred cats along the 
south slope of the Sugar Valley Hill in Clinton County. 
David A. Zimmerman and son Jake killed twice that 
number in eastern Sugar Valley and the White Deer 
Narrows. Earl. ]\Iotz, "the schoolboy hunter" of 
Woodward. Centre County, has killed many wild cats 
in the Pine Creek Hollow. E. N. Woodcock and Leroy 
Lyman, noted Potter County hunters, undoubtedly 
killed over one hundred wild cats apiece. Dr. W. J. 
McKnight. of Brookville, in his "Pioneer Outline His- 
tory of Northwestern Pennsylvania," says : "The cata- 
mount is larger than the wild cat. They have been 
killed in this region six and seven feet long from nose 
to end of tail. They have tufts on their ear-tips, and 
are often mistaken for panthers. George Smith, a 
Washington Township early hunter, wdio resided in 
the wilds of Elk County until his death in 190L killed 
in this wilderness five hundred catamounts and six 
hundred wild cats." Bill Long, the "King Hunter" of 



30 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 

Jefiferson and Clearfield Counties, who died in 1880, is 
mentioned by Dr. McKnight as having killed in Penn- 
sylvania five himdred catamounts and two hundred 
wild cats. His son, Jack Long, who died at his home, 
two miles from DuBois in 1900, killed, according to a 
statement made by him to Dr. McKnight, "wild cats 
and catamounts without number." E. H. Dickinson, 
pioneer hunter of McKean County, killed a number of 
Canada Lynxes, or catamounts, during his early days 
in the Northern Pennsylvania wilderness. He died in 
188.5, aged 75 years. With his son, C. W. Dickinson, 
he helped kill his last catamount in November, 18G7. 
In commenting upon the Canada Lynx, Dickinson is 
quoted thus by S. N. Rhoads : "We have a cat in 
JNIcKean County yet that is called a lynx, because of its 
size and color. Some of them will weigh as high as 
forty-four pounds. But they are a darker grey than 
the lynx. I believe they are a cross between the lynx 
and the common wild cat." The true lynx is a silent 
animal, not given to whining or screaming like the wild 
cat, except when badly wounded. Rhoads states that 
the early Swedish settlers on the Delaware called the 
lynx the "Warglo," or wolf-lynx, and the wild cat the 
"Kattlo," or cat lynx. Among the Pennsylvania Ger- 
mans the lynx was called the "Harsh Katz," and the 
wild cat the "Wild Katz." The French in Clearfield 
County, in the Loup Run Country, now corrupted into 
"Loop" Run, who came miostly from Picardy, called 
the lynx or catamount the Chet Ccrvier and the wild 
cat the Chet Savage. No list of Pennsylvania cat hunt- 




SAML MOTTER. Mt. Zion. Clinton County. 

Better known as "California Sam" 

Famed for catching wild cats alive with his bare hands 



PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 31 

ers would be coinpk-te williinU a iiK-ntion of Sail) 
M otter, better known as "California Sam." He was 
left a fortune by an uncle who went to California in 
IS 1!). Sam Motter's specialty, as long as the supply of 
cats lasted on the head of McElhattan Run, in Clinton 
County, was catching these animals alive with his bare 
hands. His dogs would trail the cats to their dens, 
where Motter would dig them out, and with deft 
movements seize them by the throats, lie sold the 
cats at good prices to zocjs, shows, hotels and fanciers. 
Robert Karstetter, of Loganton, Clinton County, often 
used his coon dogs to trail wild cats with considerable 
success. Dan L(jng. who killed the last wolf in R.crks 
County, in Sliubert's (jap in ].S.S(;, killed many wild cats 
and lUue Mountain cats during his eventful career as a 
hunter. In the county records of I'erks County, 
/,y;/.r k'ltfiis is classed as a "catamount," and the l>lue 
Mountain cat as "wild cat." During the years IHHh- 
\X'.)'A, inclusive, bounties were paid on thirty cata- 
niounls and wild cats in I'erks County. Of these 
eleven were classed as "catamounts," the heavy type 
of r>ay Lynx. 'iMie Canada Lynx has not been ob- 
served in Ijerks Countw for many years. The Seneca 
Indian doctors used the fat, blood and excrement of 
wild cats as a cure for divers maladies of mankind, 
including ])aldncss, gout, the falling sickness and 
shrunken sinews. They recommended coats and leg- 
gings of cat fur (worn fur inward) for various aches 
and pains in bones and joints. Wild cats will breed in 
captivity if given a large enclosure, but kill their 



S2 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 



young if they are born in close confinement. A "breed- 
ing cage" should contain running water, trees to climb 
on, and much dense foliage. It should be wired, of 
course, on top, to prevent the agile animals from 
climbing out. Wild cats in captivity prefer as food 
the entrails of animals and fowls, chicken heads, cow 
and horse heads, fish heads, berries, potatoes, grass, 
bugs and grubs, but be sure that they get plenty of 
fresh water. They often become friendly and playful, 
and will have as much enjoyment out of a ball of cat- 
nip as a tame "tabby." 

"California Sam" gives these quaint views concern- 
ing the Pennsylvania wild cat : 

"It appeared to me an opportune time to write a few 
lines on the wild cat to clear up in the minds of the 
younger generation some of the stories that have been 
told to me when but a boy, some hair-raising tales of 
the monster 'catamount,' 'wild cat,' 'bob cat.' 

"Now let me say I live in the southeastern part of 
Clinton County, Pennsylvania, and in my fifty years 
of travels in the forest, so well I became acquainted 
with the cat that I could communicate with an old bore 
cat. This is what he once told me : 'My mate met 
with a sad failure when she jumped in Sam Motter's 
face. Although Hotter is only a small man, my spirits 
dropped out of my long legs when I saw the ease with 
which he handled his 80-pound pack, and it occurred 
to me that my little 25 pounds of nerve and sinew 
would count little in case of any serious trouble with 
Mr. Motter. I therefore got out of his way. I wish 




ROBERT KARSTETTER. 
A Veteran Clinton County Cat Hunter 



PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 



to say to the younger sportsmen that my breed of cats 
do not attack men under any circumstances when we 
can get away. In fact, we do not like men at all, and 
I have heard old hunters say, when talking over their 
campfire, that as many years as they had been in the 
hdls they never had seen a mean, quarrelsome cat. 
and they wondered where they kept themselves. We 
wild cats have no special range, but come from the 
highest peaks to the lowest bottoms in the day time 
and sleep in some dense thicket or in some cave or 
under some rock where the sun does not penetrate. 
As cool dusk comes on we prowl softly about, looking 
for lazy snowshoe rabbits or some grouse or field 
mice. Many an unsuspecting brood or aged drum- 
ming cock have I devoured as the light grew dim in 
the spring evening. It is very amusing to sit and 
watch an old cock grouse, as he swells and walks along 
his log. And when he has his thoughts full of his 
sweetheart and begins to drum, I just make three 
jumps and then with one stroke I crush the life and 
conceit out of him. Of course squirrels, small birds 
and even fish are all acceptable when they are foolish 
enough to come my way. I am also very fond of the 
remains of deer or other dead animals when killed by 
hunters. When I am angry I don't stand with my 
ears pitched forward like a horse, neither do I show my 
teeth and growl. When I get mad I lay my ears well 
back, just as any other cat does, and the madder I get 
the lower I lay them, producing a snaky expression. 



34 PENNSLYLVANIA WILD CATS. 



In order to get any large and satisfactory photos of me 
you must either tree me or catch me in a trap.' 

So I will close my quotation. Oh, how dear to my 
heart is my old hunting coat, my old shooting coat that 
has worn me so well, for weeks at a time in all kinds 
of weather, and if it could talk, many's the tale it 
would tell !"' 



Cn^E THE WILD CATS A CHANCE. 



LiBRftRY OF CONbKt:>^ 



002 911 091 8 



1 



